the visits of fashionable life, will be idle, insipid, and useless ceremonies. And for the attainment of either of them, a single wisely chosen sentence, or one truly feeling word, is better than whole hours of formal staying, or heartless conversation, in which the faithful minister has no time to waste. Hearers should learn to remember, and the minister should never forget, that ordinary pastoral intercourse is but a subordinate department of the sacred office. His great object, the burden of his commission, is, to preach Christ and him crucified: and there is no hope of successfully preaching without studying Christ; for if we do not study what we teach, we shall teach what we do not know. The first great object of the preacher should be, to see that it is not his fault if the sanctuary is not filled on the Sabbath; and of this, he can never be sure, unless his preaching be such as to interest, feed, instruct, edify his hearers. "We know," says one who was a hearer of the late Dr. Chalmers, "how great a privilege it is to have to look forward to the ministrations of the Sabbath, not as wearinesses, which, simply as a matter of duty, were to be endured, but as exquisite feasts, spiritual and intellectual, which were to be greatly relished and enjoyed. And when hearing it sometimes regretted, with reference to at least one remarkable man," (Dr. C.) "that he did not visit his flock quite so often as was desirable, (many of the complainants' sole idea of a ministerial visit, being, simply, that it was a long exordium of agreeable gossip, with a short tail piece of prayer stuck to its latter end,) we have strongly felt how immensely better it was that the assembled congregation should enjoy, each year, fifty-two Sabbaths of their minister at his best, than that the tone of his pulpit services should be lowered, in order that each individual among them might

enjoy a yearly half hour of him apart. We fully recognize the importance, in its own subordinate place, of ministerial visitation, especially when conducted as it ought to be. But the church must not be sacrificed to the ungrounded idea, that it occupies a level as high or even nearly as high as the preaching of the word."

The fifteenth chapter, is tender and touching, suggesting to the minister many considerations of the deepest solemnity and weight. We quote but a single passage, setting forth in striking and spirited language, a truth of equal interest to all. Speaking of obedience to God's commandments as the sum and substance of religion, Dr. S. says:

"O! it is a great matter, in heart and life, to abstain from those things which

God has forbidden, and to do those that he has required. It alters not the im portance of this remark, that such a righteousness is not a sinner's justification. It is all his religion. Impulses of fancy, animal emotions, vague and dreamy sentimentalism may inweave themselves habits of good men, and give their piety with the intellectual temperaments and

its lights and shadows; but they form no part of their piety. That fervor which glows only to obey, and those impulses which impel to do and to suffer the will of God, are alone worthy of confidence. Men are dead in trespasses and sins, because they never obey God;-devils are devils, because they live in disobedience.

And Christian men and ministers are Christians, just in the measure in which they are obedient. Faith is as obedient, as it is confiding; love as dutiful, as it is affectionate; humility as submissive, as sinning, as it sorrows for sin; joy as quick it is lowly; penitence as much afraid of to do the will of God, hearkening to the voice of his word, as it is enrapturing and transporting; and zeal as warm and steadfast in giving battle to all that is wrong, as it is when it burns with its boldest and most active spirituality. It is a dry doctrine, a dead orthodoxy, and no more resembles true piety than a marble statue does a living man, that does not express itself in obedience. There is amazing force in that remonstrance of Samuel to Saul, To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.' Afflictive fastings and fervent prayers, devout contemplation, eloquent

sermons, fitting religious conversation, and commended sanctity, are sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, compared with cheerful obedience to the will of God. Nor in saying these things, do we forget, that the Lord looketh on the heart, and requires a spiritual religion. The religion that is all internal, and the religion that is all external are upon the same footing; both are bad: the former all emotion, and alternate rapture and grief, and empty imagination; the latter, the form of godliness without its power. What is piety, but that state of mind and moral feeling which regards God as God; loves him as God; obeys him as God, and honors him as Lawgiver and Redeemer? What is piety, but the love of the creature, so responding to the love of the Creator, that in defiance of every opposing claim, whether of corruption within or the world without, and in opposition to every other master, it makes the Redeeming Savior its Lord, and perfects holiness in his love and fear? What is piety, but that great astounding" (?) "principle, which, while it is the main spring of action in the heart, has the vigor and efficacy to make itself felt in every artery, and vein, and muscle, and delicate nerve of the moral man? Strong spiritual exercises, under the powerful impression of scriptural truth, are characteristic of a healthful state of moral

feeling, only when they are sufficiently strong to make us love and perform the will of our Father which is in heaven. This is the piety which the pulpit solicits in order to give it power."

In the sixteenth chapter, in connection with other striking thoughts on the example of ministers, Dr. S.

says:

"It is too much to expect that the ministers of Christ should be perfect men. *** We are not apologists for human imperfection; yet we do pity the man, who, in this fallen world, expects to find everything in his minister to gratify either his piety or his pride. He can have little knowledge of himself, and little of that charity which hopeth all things and covereth a multitude of sins, who can not appreciate true excellence because it has blemishes. It were a rare combination to find any one man possessing all the personal qualifications to be desired in those who minister at the altar. The beau ideal may be a very agreeable picture to the imagination, but it will never be realized. It was, indeed, once realized; but it was too unearthly for this low world, too pure for men to look upon. They defiled it; yea, they spit upon it, and smote it with their hands, and exclaimed, Let him be crucified!'"-p. 294.

And again;

"I am acquainted with men who are in the habit of sitting in severe judgment upon the character of ministers; but they are suspicious men, rash men, and men whose word would be taken with some grains of allowance in a court of justice!"-p. 295.

And still again;

But

"There are not wanting those who impugn the character of the Christian ministry, because they do not carry the solemnity of the pulpit into all the scenes of social life. Many, indeed, are the scenes of social life where the solemnity of the pulpit is called for; nor in any of them, are the dignity and proprieties of ministerial character unfitting. as well might secular time be transformed into the Sabbath, and the busy scenes of the world into the formal services of the sanctuary, as the emotions of the pulpit pervade the uniform intercourse of a minister, either with the people of God, or the men of the world. Levity and worldliness are sufficiently out of place in him who is an ambassador of God to guilty men: but affected solemnity is worse. Ministers there are, who are so solemn, that you never see a smile or a pleasant expression on their countenances. They are absolutely fearful! There is no piety in this. Were an angel from heaven to dwell with men, his spirit and example would be a perpetual rebuke to such ministers. Christianity, though of divine origin, is not the religion of angels: it is engrafted on human nature. The whole arrangement is adapted to ject is to purify and elevate, it is no part what is human; and while its great obof its design to terrify. It is not a sort of personified apathy; nor is it some ghastly messenger that lives only among the tombs. It moves among men, as the messenger of heaven's tenderest mercy; and though wherever it goes, it rebukes iniquity, its footsteps are radiant with light and love. It multiplies the joys of men, and only admonishes them that they may not be sinful joys."—p. 300.

The chapter on the responsibility of ministers, abounds in thrilling considerations to every ambassador of Christ. The two on the sources of the supply for the ministry are full of valuable suggestions to the ministry and the churches. We agree with Dr. Spring, that "it were a calamity greatly to be deplored, that we should act on the principle, that poverty and low birth are essential qualifications for the Chris

tian ministry; and that a well-bred man is disqualified from becoming a minister of the gospel because he is well-bred, and the son of a rich man disqualified because he is rich.' But we have never yet seen evidence that "such is the strong tendency of the public mind," or "that the church of God and the ministry themselves scarcely think of looking for men to serve the Lord Jesus in his sanctuary, save to the poor." Our strong impression, is that there has been the disposition to seek out and welcome, alike, those of both classes to the sacred office, and if more of one than of the other class have actually been brought forward to it, it was because all that could be gathered from both, were still not enough to meet the exigencies of the church and the world.

Several other topics are suggested for remark in these and the subsequent chapters; and we would gladly quote what is said, in the nineteenth chapter, as to the social standing of the apostles and primitive preachers; as to the different professions; as to education societies, &c. But as we have already exceeded our intended limits, we pass to the topic of the twentieth chapter, "the fitting education for the Christian ministry."

The suggestions on this subject, present some thoughts that are new, some that are valuable, and some that are debatable. The whole chapter has already been discussed with some earnestness, and we think with rather more sensitiveness than was called for, by a writer of high ability in one of the religious quarterlies of the day. This writer understands Dr. Spring to "avow his preference for the private method of theological education, by pastors, to the public or academical method, now almost universally adopted in this country." We do

*Biblical Repertory, July, 1848.

not so understand him. He does, indeed, suggest some advantages of the old course, that he thinks might, and ought to be added to those of the new; and as far as such advantages can be shown, all, we think, will agree with him. But so far from expressing any such "preference" for the old system, as would exclude the new, he says of the transition from the former to the latter: "It is quite obvious that something has been lost by the change; and it is equally obvious that something has been gained. If I were called upon to strike the balance, I frankly confess I should be not a little embar rassed." Is this the expression of a preference? Again, Dr. S., after presenting the thoughts which have passed through his mind on the subject, remarks: "These and other considerations would lead to the conclusion, that our theological seminaries must be sustained ;” nor does he any where say, when setting forth his views on the opposite side of the question, "these and other considerations would lead to the conclusion, that these seminaries must be abolished." He does, indeed, query whether the "evils incidental to this" (the public) "system of instruction may not be rem edied ;" and whether it is not "possible to give our theological institutions such a direction, that they shall be better than they are, and more certainly accomplish the benevolent designs of those who founded them?" But this is a very different thing, from proposing to abolish them-as much so, as the request to the watchmaker to clean or repair the watch, is, from requesting him to destroy it.

Still further, Dr. S., suggesting that public seminaries have dangers, (which his reviewer not only does not question, but justly intimates they have, even more than he has maintained,) goes on to show, how these dangers may be obviated, saying, among other things, "it must be by a watchful eye over the

said none in the second, we believe that men of the present century (many of them living) might be mentioned, who are their equals. And so far as any one of all the number was above the level of the present age, he was still more above the level of his own. One or two mountain peaks are no criterion of the general elevation of the continent from which they may happen to rise. We were not a little amused, in a recent conversation on this subject, with a discerning and highly intelligent minister, to find, that for his great men in the sacred profession, he came down to a still later date, than that of the second class given above. And we have but lit tle doubt, that the coming age, will refer to men like Mason, Cornelius, Richards, Buckminster, Larned, Bedell, Griffin, Breckenridge, and Nettleton, (to say nothing of some scores of those now living,) as proof of the peculiarly high character of the American pulpit in the first half of the nineteenth century. And who can say that half a century hence, some prominent writer may not be found asserting that "the pulpit is degenerating," and by way of proof, parading such names as Alexander, Barnes, Beecher, Mason, Park, Stone, Spring, Taylor, Tyng, Wayland, and possibly even Finney!

The truth is, that greatness is very much a matter of distance;-no man looks for it in his own village, or town, or neighborhood; and no age, but in some one preceding. The distance not only "lends en chantment," but covers defects. There is almost always fog enough over the past for the objects that are seen at all in it to loom up, far higher than their real level. Position, again, is often mistaken for greatness-the place being looked to as the gauge of the individual filling it, as the outer clothing of the man may be (by courtesy) supposed to be some indication of the form and amount of bones and muscles with

in. So too, the associations and estimates of early life, are very apt to be retained and carried on to later days. We have known a marbleplaying urchin, nudging his associ ate, as two recently licensed theological students passed by, and somewhat peremptorily intimating, that he "had better get out of the way" of those rather venerable gentlemen! And if all the parties lived to grow up, it is more than likely that the former would look upon the latter as among the great men of the age! Goldsmith's village schoolmaster was, doubtless, the great man to all his pupils down to their latest days.

We might give still other reasons of this too common tendency, in every age and department of life, to undervalue the present in compari son with the past. But enough has been said to be a basis for the sug gestion that the world has not constantly been degenerating-that it is not among the impossibilities of the future, that the present age may yet be pointed to, in the department of the ministry, as in all things else, as equal, if not superior to any that has gone before it. gone before it. We will but add by way of offset to the opinion we are controverting, that judging by the estimate that fathers, mothers and nurses of every generation (not excepting the present) form of the children, the world must always have been and still be rapidly and wonderfully improving!

But if it were the fact, that the ministry is an exception to all other professions and callings, which we do not admit,-if while they have been steadily improving, it has been deteriorating, which we do not be lieve; still it does not follow that the deterioration is owing to theo logical seminaries; nor do we understand Dr. Spring to say that it is. He does, indeed, dwell on points, in which he thinks seminaries might be improved, and he also urges that young men, after the completion of their seminary course, should spend